Spanish Conference on Patient Safety in Primary Care

Equity, Public Health and Patient Safety.

On June 22 2018, we held the conference on Patient Safety in Primary Care. For the eleventh consecutive year, primary care professionals met in the Hospital Clínico San Carlos in Madrid to analyse, discuss and produce proposals for improvement regarding the equity and sustainability of the health system, as a first step to guarantee a safer healthcare.

The objective is to maintain a specific discussion forum to address experiences related to patient safety in primary care. As previously, the conference was organized jointly by numerous organisations including the Spanish Society of Family and Community Medicine (semFYC).

The tandem of Patient Safety and Primary Care already has had an important journey since we celebrated our first day in San Sebastian in 2008 and, as every year, is a new opportunity to see each other again and learn by sharing experiences.

This year the topic was “Equity, Public Health and Patient Safety”. The aim was to reflect on this issue and produce proposals that help reduce unnecessary risks for the patient, linked to problems of inequity and accessibility.

The presentations of the symposia of the conference provided different perspectives, reflections and initiatives for improving the equity of the health system as a basic element to provide safe healthcare for all citizens. The president of the scientific committee, Mrs G Olivera, chaired the debate. We highlight some of the most interesting reflection topics:

- on patient safety from the perspective of public health considering aspects of social inequality and equity in Spain.

- on the commitment of patient organizations with the equity and accessibility of the Spanish health system, and its benefits, and the wishes of patients to participate in the improvement of patient safety in the health system.

- of the impact on health of populations excluded from health coverage with RD 162/2012, the commitment of health professionals and scientific societies, particularly SEMFYC in the fight for the restitution of universal coverage in Spain. This concluded with the hopeful perception of upcoming legislative changes aimed at reversing this situation.

- on the importance of equity and quality in the WHO campaign for Universal Health Coverage as a basic level of patient safety in the world.

- on improving equity in primary care on financing basic health areas, considering the social deprivation index of each area. We reflected on positive aspects of the index and on proposals for improvement in measurement, since rural areas and the young and poor population are not adequately reflected.

The presentations were recorded and they are available on You Tube:

The morning ended with a presentation of the path of culture and patient safety strategies in our health system: Where we come from and where we are going to. Later, the Fernando Palacio awards were delivered to projects to improve patient safety in primary care.

Later, four sponsored workshops were run and allowed us to improve our training in safety skill

The Spanish Conference on Patient Safety in Primary Care has been established as a must-attend event to every Spanish speaking Primary Care health worker interested in Patient Safety.

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